The natural affinity between travel and mobile technology has long meant big expectations for the sector's expansion to mobile platforms. The surge in smartphone ownership in the last two years -- nearly half of U.S. mobile users are now estimated to have smartphones -- would seem to provide the launchpad for that growth. Indeed, a new eMarketer study projects that 36.4 million Americans will research travel on smartphones this year before doubling to about 72 million by 2016. But the report predicts the level of actual travel bookings will significantly lag the research activity. The number of people who book travel on smartphones is projected to grow from 15.8 million in 2012 to 36 million in 2016 -- remaining at half the total of those who research travel. What's holding back more transactions? There are several factors, according to the report, starting with user concerns about the security of mobile purchases. While m-commerce has become more common, people are still wary about entering credit or debit card numbers into their phones, especially for larger purchases. There's also the challenge of doing travel research, which often involves scrolling through lists of options and viewing photos or videos on a small screen. People generally prefer to do that on a desktop, laptop or even a tablet because of the larger form factor. Many travel sites are also still not optimized for mobile phones, creating an additional barrier to travel planning via smartphone. The involved process of planning a trip itself works against mobile. "Because travel purchases tend to have multiple interconnected parts, a pre-planned, multichannel travel purchase process will possibly include some research through a smartphone, but most likely will result ultimately in an online or offline booking," wrote Dan Marcec, an eMarketer analyst and author of "The Mobile Traveler" report. Where smartphones come in handy is for last-minute bookings. Both Orbitz and Travelocity have reported that more than 60% of hotel bookings made on mobile phones were for the same day. The same goes for half the bookings on Expedia's Hotels app. Still, that's a niche limited mostly to economy hotels. Beyond travel planning and booking, the report also looks at the role of mobile in transit and once people reach their destinations. This is where smartphones come into their own, serving as digital Swiss Army Knives for travelers eager for information about their flights, car rentals, nearby restaurants, and checking into hotels. All that activity opens up new opportunities for travel marketers. Almost all travelers take their mobile devices with them, and 80% said they used them all the time while away, according to a Mobile Insights study this year, cited by eMarketer. A separate TripAdvisor survey found that 44% of U.S. travelers planned to use their smartphone this year as a travel resource and almost half (47%) would use them once they reached their destination. But eMarketer warned that travel companies trying to reach smartphone-toting travelers have to strike a balance between being helpful without becoming overbearing. Providing concierge-related services are a natural step for hotels. Through a partnership with Foursquare, for instance, the Ritz-Carlton has outfitted its app with content tailored to all 79 of its hotels and resorts worldwide. Another luxury hotel operator, OPUS Hotels, has taken a different approach, giving guests at its Vancouver location pre-loaded iPhones in their rooms offering free local phone service so international visitors don't have to worry about roaming charges. When it comes to airlines, the report suggested companies can use smartphones to build loyalty among customers in-transit. One example is a partnership Lufthansa formed with Foursquare through its Blue Legends app, which lets users virtually “check in” to airports, lounges and the airline's flights to share and get information about their trip. But so far, most airlines aren't taking capitalizing on smartphones to offer ancillary services to customers on-the-go. A survey of senior executives at top carriers earlier this year showed only about a quarter of their companies offered additional traveler services through the mobile Web or apps. However, 83% of them planned to do so by 2015.
Walgreens may be viewed as a corporate giant chain in the minds of many people, but in fact, its history is rooted in the corner drugstore nostalgia of a bygone era. The Deerfield, Ill.-based company is looking to bring some of that history to light with a new brand campaign from GSD&M. In its first work for the retailer since winning the advertising account last May, the Austin, Texas-based agency looks to tout the company’s 111-year-history of innovation. A 30-second commercial begins by showing Charles Walgreen founding his namesake store in 1901, and tracking several innovations the company created that have since become commonplace, such as childproof caps and drive-through pharmacies. Amid shots of different stores (including the company’s flagship, two-story store on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue) and its latest innovation (a prescription refill app for smartphones), a voiceover from actor John Corbett cites the company’s history, while the musical soundtrack is the signature groove from a re-record of John Fogerty’s “Down on the Corner.” “What we’re trying to do is speak to the innovations that have been a part of the brand since Charles Walgreen started a company back in 1901,” Nancy Ryan, senior vice president and group account director at the agency, tells Marketing Daily. “What we found is that Walgreens didn’t get the credit for these innovations. When we took this work into testing, consumers were very interested in how Walgreens did these things.” Using the tagline “At the corner of happy and healthy,” the effort is intended to evoke the convenience many people enjoy living in close proximity to a Walgreens, while also laying the groundwork for a more health-oriented platform that will include the rollout of more fresh foods and other items in the near future, Ryan says. “[Walgreens] is a part of people’s daily lives, and it’s working to enhance their relationship,” she says. “Some people think of us as their drug store and some people think of it as a place to shop … It’s really the place you can go to for access to health and daily living.”
We had a feeling someone was going to find the new Obama/Biden app a little troubling. When we first looked at the campaign’s new iPhone app last week in the Data and Targeting Insider we noted that its ability to load voter registration information on your neighbors was “creepy,” although it used publicly available information. The app generally gives Obama supporters information and localized talking points to leverage in discussions with others. But the app also hopes to get people involved in actively recruiting voters in their vicinity. The Canvass button in the app gives the recruiter a map of their area and populates it with flags for nearby houses, including the first name, last initial, gender and age of the occupant. A week later after the iPhone release, team Obama issued the Android version for even greater reach. Reuters has finally caught up with the app and has gotten some privacy watchdogs and experts to voice misgivings. A law professor from the University of Chicago, Lior Strahilevitz, tells Reuters: “I think some people view this app as creepy but there is nothing illegal about what they are doing.” The information in the app is aggregating data from various public sources to give users a roster of canvassing prospects in the same way campaigns already give their organizers and volunteers. But in the case of a publicly available app, this is information that now can get into the hands of anyone with a smartphone. The Obama campaign tells Reuters that it can take action against any wrongdoing associated with the app. In our use of the app, it does not allow the person to access the canvassing function without registering with a name email or Facebook Connect login. But that appears to be the extent of the tracking that the Obama campaign can perform on a canvasser.
Underscoring the growth of mobile devices in the last two years, NBC's coverage of the London Summer Olympics has generated three times the number of live streams as the Beijing Games four years ago. In a video the network posted Friday, Alan Wurtzel, president of research and media development for NBC Universal, said live streams had tripled to 45 million from 14 million in 2008, when tablets weren't even part of the media landscape and smartphones were not widespread. The network did not provide figures for on-demand streaming. NBC's 5,535 total hours of Olympics programming now runs across TV, the PC, mobile phones and tablets. “Our digital use has broken all records,” said Wurtzel. That shift toward digital and mobile viewing has also helped bring in a younger audience for the London Games. Among all demographic groups, that comprising kids and teens has seen the highest growth, with double-digit gains from the Beijing Games. Despite the surge in live streams, and the criticism NBC has come under for sticking with time-delayed airing of key events, the network's prime-time Olympics coverage this summer has beaten Beijing 12 out of 13 nights so far, with an average TV audience of 32.6 million viewers. Given those results, it's hard to imagine NBC changing its programming strategy significantly for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
Facebook has settled charges that it deceived users by breaking its promises to keep their data private, the Federal Trade Commission announced on Friday. The settlement, proposed in November, requires Facebook to obtain users' express consent before sharing their information more broadly than its privacy policy allowed when users uploaded the data. Facebook also agreed to institute a comprehensive privacy policy and to submit to audits for 20 years. In addition, the company must make sure that no one can access data deleted by users within 30 days of deletion. The company didn't admit wrongdoing in the case. The deal resolves an FTC complaint alleging that Facebook repeatedly shared users' data more broadly than they authorized. The best-known example cited by the FTC occurred in December of 2009, when Facebook reclassified a host of data about users as “public” -- including people's names, photos and friend lists. That decision prompted the Electronic Privacy Information Center and other groups to ask the FTC to probe the company. The FTC's original complaint also alleged that Facebook wrongly allows app developers to access profile information they didn't need, and shared some users' names with advertisers via referrer headers. (Facebook prevailed last year in a lawsuit alleging that it violated people's privacy by sharing their names via referrer headers.) Commissioner J. Thomas Rosch dissented from the decision to approve the settlement. Rosch said he was concerned that Facebook hadn't admitted to engaging in deceptive practices. "If the Commission allows the respondent to expressly deny that it did engage in that conduct (or to use language that is tantamount to an express denial), there is a questionable basis for us to conclude that that probability exists," he wrote. Rosch raised the same objection on Thursday to a settlement requiring Google to pay $22.5 million for alleged privacy violations. Rosch also said he had concerns about whether the settlement with Facebook adequately covered apps with "deceptive information sharing practices." He said he thought the settlement should have clarified that Facebook is responsible when apps that run on its platform mislead users about privacy.
The new Starbucks-Square mobile payments partnership is an opportunity for Twitter and Facebook to leverage their developing mobile ad platforms, geo-targeting features and itinerant user base into transaction gold. The question is not if, but how soon? The convenience connection recognized by Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and Jack Dorsey, co-founder of both Square and Twitter, in their new partnership lacks the social component to move the proposition beyond the initial infatuation with using smartphone technology to pay for lattes. Social networks increasingly influence behavior and thinking. The social commerce movement is already in full swing with the likes of Shoedazzle, goodreads, and the celebrity-driven shopping service OpenSky. Of course, Dorsey gets that and will likely facilitate social connections with Twitter and others. That social momentum will grease the skids for a mobile payment and commerce explosion. Twitter, Facebook and other social networks are under pressure to monetize that social engagement, more of which is occurring on the go. Some companies such as American Express already have a vibrant social component on Twitter and its Open Business website. With more than one quarter of Americans using mobile social networks this year (largely in Facebook and Twitter), according to eMarketer, businesses are seeking to take their brand page presence and marketing there to the next level—and that means transactions. Square could develop its own full-blown social app -- but why would it, when it can expand its reach through the largest and most immediate networks gearing up for mobile marketing and commerce battle? Leveraging the information garnered in the social process (such as recommendations, insights into where and when consumers shop, and their “likes”) will result in more organic advertising and commerce experiences. The targeted marketing of products and services to individuals when they are most likely to need, want and be receptive to them is bound to be more successful than pushing out more traditional generic advertising in the hopes that someone out there will respond. Tracking Starbucks customers with their Square mobile transactions and the coffee vendor’s existing mobile payments has the potential for other marketing and transaction opportunities in the same locale, all of which can be amplified by making it a virtually shared, social experience. The smartphone payments are just the tip of the iceberg. Other area merchants can get in on the act, tipped off by geo-targeting on where smartphone users are headed. Notified friends could receive an electronic coupon for a discounted Starbucks mid- to late afternoons. The mobile social combination makes it frictionless and fun. “The stuff finds you!” observes Lou Kerner, a social media analyst turned investor who just launched a fund for buying primary and secondary shares of young mobile social companies climbing in the space. Kerner’s Social Internet Fund is providing a way for the founders, employers and angel investors of rapidly growing social and mobile companies, generally worth $25 million to $500 million, to achieve some early-stage liquidity. Kerner is betting that these companies will contribute to a period “of the greatest wealth creation we have ever seen.” Starbucks’ Schultz believes in this potential of mobile pay enough to invest $25 million in the new partnership and his own time on the Square board behind this early attempt to change how commerce happens. Square is poised to as much as double its $6 billion in annual transactions as the result of its new Starbucks ties. Players as powerful and diverse as Google, GroupOn, Microsoft and Sprint are jockeying for position in the mobile wallet space. But Twitter and Facebook Mobile have the heft in the social mobile sweet spot. Twitter has the corner on immediacy and universal reach; Facebook, on more personalized connections and they are all determined to invade each other’s space. The big data generated by every social mobile commerce move will have ramifications for reshaping all businesses. Walmart is one major retailer already tying its inventory orders and marketing to the chatter on Facebook and Twitter about what consumers want and plan to buy. The company will likely move into in-store smartphone checkout, couponing and comparison shopping with remote friends and experts by Christmas 2013 -- not unlike the new system Starbuck and Square announced, Kerner said in an interview. Although the Starbucks-Square is more evolutionary than revolutionary, the blue chip player’s endorsement will propel mobile commerce forward, faster, and likely integrate it with social mobile dynamics already reshaping the marketplace experience. The key will be organically incorporating commerce and advertising into consumers’ routine and spontaneous activities on their mobile devices and in the physical world -- whether that’s playing a virtual game, posting a photo, texting or buying a latte.
One of the great parts of being a parent is that your children reacquaint you with the games of your youth. Recently, this happened to me at our block party when my kids joined an impromptu game of Freeze Tag on a neighbor’s lawn. You remember Freeze Tag, right? Avoid the touch of the kid who’s “It” or find yourself frozen in place until another competitor taps you back to life. Yes, the punishment in this game is that you’re immobilized while everyone around you runs around, free as the breeze. As I watched my kids’ game unfold, I was struck by how we unwittingly play Freeze Tag today as adults. On any given day, over half of the mobile subscribers in the United States run around with smartphones in hand. Empowered by these devices, they do anything and everything they can with them until BAM!—they’re frozen by the tap of an unresponsive network, a glitchy app or a website that isn’t optimized for mobile. Such “frozen moments” are a source of tremendous frustration for many mobile users, but perhaps not more so than the mobile traveler. According to a new report from eMarketer, the big three online booking sites—Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity—are seeing anywhere from 50%-70% of their same-day hotel bookings made via mobile channels. Moreover, 30% of all online travel researchers are now conducting their research on a smartphone. Immobilize these consumers, and they will undoubtedly take their business to the next website or app that doesn’t freeze them up. So how can you avoid freezing out mobile consumers? Here are a few tips: 1. Mobilize Web Before Apps Mobile website or mobile app? It seems to be the marketing question of our day, but, all things being equal, I fall squarely on the side of building and optimizing your mobile website before dabbling in app development. Anyone with a smartphone can immediately connect with your mobile website through their browser. An app, however, requires consumers to find, download, and open your app to engage with it. Why force so many steps on the consumer when a simple URL will do? 2. Avoid Flash According to Nielsen, the Apple iOS is used by 32% of smartphone owners in the U.S. It is widely known that Apple iOS does not support Flash elements of any kind, so if your mobile website still uses Flash, it is not mobile. Fix this immediately. 3. Test All Links on Mobile Devices Here’s a pet peeve of mine that continues to happen time and time again. I receive an email from a travel-related company. I open the email on my smartphone. I click on a link in the email which opens my mobile browser. The site detects that I’m a mobile visitor and, instead of taking me to my desired destination, opens up the mobile website home page. I’m then trapped on the mobile site with no way to reach the link that was promoted in the email. Arrrrrgh!!!!According to ReturnPath, year-over-year email opens on mobile devices grew 82.4% and are on pace to surpass both desktop and website email views. You must, therefore, test that your links work in the mobile environment. If you have a mobile website, this means that each and every link in your email—including the unsubscribe link—must resolve to the specific destination page and not the mobile home page. Fail to do this and you’re alienating the entire mobile email audience you’ve worked so diligently to build. 4. Make Sure Apps Offer More Than the Mobile Website While I’m a mobile website first guy, I definitely see the value of mobile apps in travel marketing—but only when they offer information, resources, tools or an experience that is superior to what the website can offer. The last thing you want to do is launch a subpar app with glitches that tanks in the app store reviews. Good candidates for value-added apps are loyalty programs, booking apps, travel guides, games, and unique resources—just make sure your budget also includes money to promote the app to build an audience. With over 650,000 apps in the Apple App Store alone, the days of “build it and they will come” are long gone. 5. Continue to Offer SMS Alerts While the majority of mobile subscribers in the U.S. now have smartphones, we must not forget our “dumbphone” (i.e., feature phone) brethren. Both audiences continue to be very receptive to receiving SMS alerts from travel companies—especially when they add value to the travel experience. Also consider SMS for short-term communications around your guests’ stay. SMS programs sometimes works best with consumers when it has a stated beginning and end. 6. Improve Wi-Fi Connectivity This should go without saying, but the bandwidth needs of mobile consumers are only going to go up in coming years. If you’re a travel brand with physical spaces, wi-fi improvement should be a permanent line item on your budget in coming years. The deciding factor is no longer whether you offer wi-fi, it’s how fast and reliable the connection is that you provide. Since we’re still in the early days of the great mobile migration, it’s inevitable that we will unwittingly “freeze” mobile consumers on occasion. The question is whether your brand will not only work to fix issues as they arise but also anticipate mobile consumer needs in ways that create competitive advantage. That’s called freezing out the competition. And that’s a very profitable game.